She reports that this year alone it is estimated that 24,000 children will be diagnosed.

"It's important for people to understand the higher number of diagnoses is not because the criteria for autism has expanded," explains Rowe. "It is actually harder now than it was in 1980, when autism was first introduced as a disorder, to meet the criteria."

Rowe credits early intervention with helping children with autism meet their full potential, but understands that it can be tricky to point out signs in the very young. She says that parents can begin seeing "red flags" as early as 12 months if they know what to look for.

"Babies that don't babble, point or make gestures by 12 months should be checked," she suggests. "Also, if they've made no single words by 16 months, and no two-word phrases by 24 months. Other possible concerns are a heightened sensitivity to sounds, smells, light, touch and objects such as clothing or food."

According to Rowe, the most significant research finding in the field of autism over the last year was the discovery that only one percent of cases is the direct result of family genetics, which leaves the other 99 percent resulting from environmental factors or a combination of environment and genetics.

With all the focus on the child, families of children with autism can often feel overwhelmed. Rowe stresses the importance of pacing and refueling.

"A lifetime of helping a child with autism is like running a series of marathons; some may even describe it as running a marathon every day," she says. "Children never flourish in an environment with burned out parents. The field is filled with wonderful therapists, physicians, and teachers, and there are many other families living with the challenges autism presents to help provide support and share information."

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To see if these results could be generalized from the genetically isolated Hutterite population to a more diverse group, the researchers tested the same variations in the CHI3L1 gene in 178 Caucasian children enrolled in prospective birth cohort, known as COAST, a collaboration led by Robert Lemanske of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

They also looked for correlations between asthma and SNP -131C/G in two clinical samples, one from the Children's University Hospital in Freiberg, Germany (344 children with asthma and 28, and 94 without), and one from the asthma clinics at the University of Chicago Medical Center (99 children and adults with asthma and 197 without).

In the two clinical samples, those with the CC configuration at position 131 were more likely to have asthma, with CG intermediate and GG the lowest risk of the disease. In the COAST cohort, many subject were still too young to have developed asthma, but the genetic patterns was closely associated with YKL-40 levels, and this association was already present at birth.

The authors suspect that the change from C to G at this site reduces expression of the gene, resulting in lower levels of YKL-40 and protection from asthma.

Although variation in CHI3L1 appears to be one of the most significant genetic triggers yet discovered for susceptibility to asthma, it is far from the sole cause of the disease, the researcher caution. In the Hutterites, it explains 9.4 percent of the variance in YKL-40 levels, suggesting that additional genetic variants also influence these levels. Finding those variations "could identify additional genes," they add, "with significant impact on asthma risk and lung function."

"This evolutionarily ancient pathway involving the innate immune system plays a surprisingly important role in asthma pathogenesis," said Ober, "and a single genetic variant in the CHI3L1 gene may account for most of this risk."

This could have a significant impact on drug development, she added. "For some people, if you block YKL-40 you might dramatically reduce the severity of the disease. Knowing the genotype at SNP -131C might identify those who most likely to benefit from such a treatment."

Asthma is a chronic, treatable disease that causes narrowing of the airways, making breathing difficult at times. More than 22 million people in the United States have asthma, including 6.5 million children under age 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The disease generates annual health care costs estimated at $14 billion.

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